We are just coming out of a financial depression, and companies have had to lay off thousands of people.

depression 来自动词 depress（使沮丧、使萧条），加上名词后缀 -ion 构成。depress 由前缀 de-（表示"向下"）和 press（压）组成，字面意思是"向下压"。depression 在这里指经济活动的严重衰退期，即"经济萧条"。